THE BLACK DAHLIA

Who Murdered Elizabeth Short?

by Joelle Steele

Elizabeth Short was only 23 years old when she was brutally murdered. Her remains were found the morning of January 15, 1947 on South Norton Avenue, midway between Coliseum Street and West 39th Street in the developing Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. She was naked, her face bruised and disfigured, her body cut in half at the waist, drained of blood, and cleaned. The woman who found her thought the body was a discarded mannequin at first. Short was nicknamed "The Black Dahlia" by newspapers at the time. Despite extensive investigations of the 25 most likely suspects out of more than 150 by the LAPD and the FBI, the murderer was never found.

Police Photo of Elizabeth Short's Body as Found

Press Photo of Police Examining Elizabeth Short's Body as Found

Sometime after 1999, former LAPD homicide detective Steve Hodel wrote a book called Black Dahlia Avenger (and others on the same subject) in which he accused his own father, George Hill Hodel, of the murder. One of the many connections he made between his father and Short was based, on two photographs from his father's album that he believed were of Short. But the photograph in Hodel's album (below) does not match Short's features.

Photos left to right: Short 1943; autopsy photo 1947; Short 1946; and unidentified woman album.

But, at a glance (no measuring required), the most obvious difference is the widow's peak. Add to that the brow lines, the thickness of the nose, and the cheek and jaw lines. Even Hodel's family members didn't believe the photos in George's album were of Short.

According to Steve Hodel's website in his Author Q&A column, he was asked if he still believed the photographs in his father's album were of Short. His response was that he now believed that only one of them was her (below), and that it was of a reclining nude. Well, sorry Steve. I could tell just on sight that it wasn't her. But, I measured and compared the face to Short's, and it's not her either.

Reclining nude in George Hodel's album

To say the least, George Hill Hodel was a shady guy. He would seem to have been an excellent suspect. While he was well-educated (despite a sex scandal during his studies at Caltech) and had a medical degree, he had a very complex variety of multiple marriages and relationships. At one point, he was accused of sexual abuse (rape) by one of his daughters (for which he was acquitted). And Steve Hodel thought his father's handwriting resembled that of the unidentified murderer. Short had a somewhat mysterious chain of possible relationships, and she had occasionally traveled along the fringes of George Hodel's social circle, so she could very well have known or even dated George.

LAPD Detective Brian Carr, who was in charge of the Black Dahlia case, held the opinion that Steve Hodel's theory was based on a few intriguing facts linked together by "unsubstantiated supposition." And, despite a 2004 statement by L.A. County's Head Deputy District Attorney Stephen Kay that he believed George Hodel was the murderer, there has been an enormous amount of speculation but zero hard evidence linked to anyone as the real murderer of Elizabeth Short.